By 
Laterite has been widely defined as a highly weathered material, rich in secondary oxides of iron, aluminium, or both. It is void or nearly void of basic primary silicates, but it may contain large amounts of quartz and kaolinite. A distinctive feature of laterite and lateritic soils is the higher proportion of sesquioxides of iron and/or aluminium relative to the other chemical components. This study proposed conceptual models for the determination of soil cohesion based on the correlations of soil cohesion with fines content. This was with a view to contributing to timely, less laborious and cost effective determination of cohesion of lateritic soils. Selected lateritic soil samples were subjected to laboratory analyses. The fines were separated from the coarse component of the soils after which the samples were remoulded in varying ratios (fines: coarse) from 10:90 to 100:0 in 10% increment. The samples were then subjected to an unconsolidated-undrained triaxial test to determine the shear strength parameters. Quantitative relationships between fines content and cohesion of the soil samples were developed. It was found that the cohesion of the soil samples generally increased with an increase in fines content; the polynomial relationships gave the best fitting between the fines content and cohesion of the soil samples. From the findings of this research work, thefollowing conclusions are made in relation to the objectives of the research: (i) The cohesion of the studied soil samples generally increased with an increase in fines content; (ii) the best fitting between the fines content and cohesion of the soil samples. The results are valid within the study area, the tested materials and the procedure outlined in this paper. It is recommended to perform more experiments to validate the finding in this research.
Read full article: http://bp.bookpi.org/index.php/bpi/catalog/view/44/193/345-1